Navajo Indian Trading Posts

Their History in the Southwest

Arizona contains a treasure of Americana in its trading posts and the history of the men who established them. These adventurous and intrepid men who, with patience and privation, established a changing custom in our country. They were men who preferred the establishment of commerce with the Indians, rather than conquest.

In 1852, the Utah Legislature passed laws that demanded tighter, more humane regulations regarding the treatment of Indians. Soon there came traders to the area that fell in love with the land and the people and who believed that the Indian was entitled to equality and respect. These traders believed if they were to prosper, the Indian must prosper. They encouraged the weaving of fine blankets, taught the Indians methods of cross-breeding cattle and sheep in order to improve their herds, and created a market for, and a universal appreciation of, Native American Indian arts and crafts.

One of the first men to open a trading post for the Navajo Indians was Juan Lorenzo Hubbell. At the age of twenty-four years old he built his first trading post among the people of Chief Ganado (Many Cattle) in Arizona, 20 miles west of Fort Defiance. In fact he named the area Ganado in honor of the Navajo chief.

Other posts opened in the area, but Hubbell and his partner Clinton N. Cotton, bought them all out. During Hubbell's lifetime he would make and give away a fortune, become a sheriff, a legislator, and the first U. S. Senator for the State of Arizona.

But one of the most important aspect of Hubbell's career is the fact that he and Cotton were the first traders to bring Mexican silversmiths to the reservation to teach the Indians how to make silver jewelry.

They were also the first traders to encourage the weaving of better rugs and blankets, more intricate designs and colors; and were the first to send illustrated pamphlets to the East in order to create a more splendid market for Indian arts and crafts.

Indian trading posts, besides being a center for trade, became a local meeting place, post office and bank. It served as a place for Indians to secure credit by using their silver and turquoise jewelry and hand-woven rugs as collateral; this what is called pawn. The trader acted as ambassador to and for the Indians, explaining white man's laws and culture, and respecting the laws and culture of the Indian. The successful trader learned the Indian language, religion, strong traditional beliefs and taboos, acted as mortician, advisor, confidant, diplomat, and sometimes married into the tribe. It took a great deal of finesse on the part of a trader to persuade the Indians to trust the white man's medicine, and still respect and remain on good terms with the Indian medicine man.

At Hubbell's Ganado Trading Post he sold coffee, sacks of flour and sugar, horse collars, bridles and harnesses, treadle sewing machines and coffee grinders, bolts of bright velvet, cotton and calico, black felt hats with high, undented crowns and wide brims, canned goods, boots, saddles and Levi's.

In 1967, Hubbell's became the only trading post that has been dedicated as a National Historic Monument. It is now part of the National Park Service which operates it as a working trading post to the Navajos instead of an impersonal museum.

There were other "founding fathers" of the era of the Indian trading posts. One of these men was Thomas Varker Keam, who with his brother married Navajo women and opened a trading post in 1875, 30 miles west of Ganado. He later sold his post to his dear friend, Hubbell in 1903. Another kindred spirit and friend of Hubbell and Keam was Samuel E. Day. His post was built a few miles from Canyon De Chelly. There were others, too numerous to elaborate on in this article.

Excerpts in the above article taken from ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine, March 1975.